Microsoft Launches "Scroogled" Anti-Google Website To Help Shoppers

Microsoft launched a new campaign that aims to inform Google users about how the search giant displays results on their Shopping page. Microsoft calls their new website "Scroogled", and it discusses how Google's new initiative for their Shopping section turns all results into paid ads, instead of actual relevant, helpful results.

Back in May, Google made the decision to move to a new model where all merchants pay either per-click or per-transaction in order to be included in Google Shopping results. This means that when you search for a product, instead of getting the most helpful and relevant results, you're actually just seeing paid ads.

The word "Scroogled" most likely comes from combining "screwed" and "Google" together, and Microsoft says that "when you limit choices and rank them by payment, consumers get Scroogled." To help shoppers, Microsoft has offered up their own way of shopping online and finding the best price, by using Bing for searching for gifts.

Microsoft is laying down strong commitments to its approach to shopping results in order to send a stronger message to Google. Among the commitments is a promise to not "switch to pay-to-rank to allow some shopping search results to appear higher than others." While Microsoft may hold onto these promises for now, we're not sure if they can keep this up forever.